Foreign News: Philosopher's Tower

From his cool and shabby room
behind the mellowed walls of Rome's Convent of the Little Company of
Mary, the 80-year-old philosopher spoke sparingly last week of things
beyond the noise of war. George Santayana's fame as a poet,
philosopher, novelist (The Last Puritan) made the newsmen listen to him
respectfully. The old philosopher's aloof attitude was bound to
irritate men who were very near to war. But his words were worth
listening to.

"I shall never leave here," said Santayana, looking about the place
where he has been in retreat since 1941....